CORNWALL Ontario – In what turned out to be one of the longest presentations to council I’ve ever endured Cornwall City council voted to give itself an unprecedented raise Monday evening.
The presentation was so long that the mayor and four councilors took potty breaks during the monstrous amount of info provided by the consultants.
The fact that a consultant was used solely to justify a raise is pathetic and frankly in this scribblers opinion taxpayers should be reimbursed by those on council that voted for it. Using the Walkerton tragedy as justification to give Bob and his mob a raise? Seriously?
What this council has done is not only reinforce that fact that they don’t care for the public purse; but are brazen about it. Taxes have steadily gone up during Mayor Kilger’s two terms rubber stamped by his core group of support councilors; his slate. The utter arrogance towards rate payers is clearly shown and the speeches made by many were in pure campaign mode.
What people miss is that salaries of the mayor and Council are not that high for several reasons. Past politicians were dedicated to the city and realized that the income of many of its residents are lower than what they are paid for their part time positions which really are an honorarium and not a salary.
Generations of politicians who chose to not jack citizens have been disrespected, and dishonored. The fact that our salaries are low is a monument to their dedication which a group of corrupt, incompetent, and sleazy greedy trough feeders trashed with one vote.
Those that voted for the raise were councilors Carr, Gardiner, Grant, Rivette, and Elaine MacDonald with mayor Kilger being the deciding vote. I get that some in that group might need the dosh; but listening to Elaine complain about council being a “Rich Man’s” group led to Councilor Dupelle publicly smacking her down and she apologizing.
Murphy, Rivette, and Gardiner have announced they are running again for council as is Mayor Kilger.
As was stated that evening; when you’re telling staff that you need to keep raises to 2% per year where do you get the gumption to nearly double an honorarium?
Really?
I could possibly understand a cost of living increase with an extra 1% to “catch up”; but this was a sham that sadly is typical of this council. It’s how we end up with situations like the Fitzpatrick scandal that is alleged to have cost the city $3M +
The one bright moment is that besides exposing those who voted for this nonsense the new elected council in November can rescind this raise. It should be interesting to see what candidates have to say on this and if they would vote to repeal the raise as put through?
What do you think Cornwall? You can post your comment below.
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Part 1 Part 3 coming up.
UPDATE 9:50 AM
We have updated the story to show that it was in fact councilor Carr and not Murphy that voted to support the raise. Our apologies to Councilor Murphy.
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Jamie with all due respect to you, Dave Murphy voted against the increase.
Denis Carr voted for the increase.
Thanks
Roland Besner
Declared Candidate for Councillor
Hiring a consultant? Really!!! Why not take the same raise you’ve forced your employees to accept……2% or take the CPI. My wife works for the city and their union is being nickeled and dimed by the city to accept concessions and contract cutbacks. As a retiree I was given .9% and I feel fine with that as that’s what I agreed to. Bringing in a consultant to justify the suggested obscene raises is just passing the buck, which this mayor and council seem very good at doing.
I can count the number of these current councilors I have respect for on one hand and still have a few fingers left over.
I do not have a problem with a cost of living adjustment from time to time. A merit increase goes without saying if the council is successful in controlling costs and finding creative ways to manage the assets that results in savings to the taxpayer. I say reward forward thinking and achievements incentives can be great motivators. This group unfortunately for the Cornwall taxpayers seem to represent the liberal concept of I am entitled to my entitlements.
On another taxpayer slap in the face this council has rescinded on the collection of household waste pickup. Electronics (the ECO fee is for the safe disposal of these items by the way) must be transported and disposed of separately and mattresses (not generally something that should be reused, check out the bedbug dilemma that was all over the news in the past couple of years) must also be sent elsewhere for disposal. How will this be handled in the low income projects around the city? What about the extra costs to seniors? Will landlords find old mattresses simply left behind for them to deal with? Will mattresses and electronics simply end up behind shopping malls, schools or along the roadside simply dumped off to avoid the cost of disposal or inconvenience? This was not a good decision and we will soon find out since the deadline is August 1ST, 2014.
By the way ask your favourite councilor how much savings you will realize on your next tax bill as a result of this new measure. Ask if the savings will offset the cost of hiring someone to pick up these items and the tipping fees.
I had a good chuckle about mistresses cost money and Bare Ass is knee deep in this area. LOL LOL. “Daddy where are you?” “Is that you Bob?” Little Bobby wants to know where you are. LOL LOL. Little Babette is on the way too. Bare Ass responding: “Oh no not again now I have to demand a raise in pay for all the Bobbies and Babettes popping out.” LOL LOL. I am having such a good laugh at this end and I sure am glad that I am no longer living in Cornwall to pay for all the crazy insanity that Bare Ass and his mod have inflicted on the people and continuing to do so. I am looking forward to part 3. I think that many will get themselves packed in case Bare Ass gets in by the ignorant of Cornwall. We will all be waiting to see the U Hall’s travelling down the highways from Cornwall to God knows where to escape.
Yes the ECO fee is for the safe disposal of electronics. But that does not mean they should be put in the household trash or recycling. Electronics stores have offered recycling programs for years, so there is no excuse for electronics appearing in the garbage and / or recyling.
I was advised that municipal waste management sites such as our very own Cornwall landfill received funding via the ECO program to facilitate the diversion and safe handling of electronic devices. This would mean that curbside disposal(recycling)was a tax paid service therefore my point would be no service should mean no tax. Is it now unreasonable for taxpayers to expect/obtain services in exchange for money paid? What is that they say about a fool and his money?
I think the funding you’re referring to enabled municipalities to fund their hazardous waste drop-offs. These hazardous waste drop-offs were 2 Wednesday s and 1 Saturday every month.
So Hugger1 what exactly does the ECO fee fund other than salaries and benefits. When you call the stewardship organization the pat answer is the safe handling and disposal of the items that are subject to the fee (tax).
I’m presuming it handles the city’s costs in recycling the hazardous waste brought in by residents to the special depot at the city dump. The one to ask would be the city,
Better yet if it contains any metal, just call The Scrap Metal Guys (in the phone book) a legitimate licensed Cornwall business and they will come and pick up the items. I have had nothing but good experiences and great service at no cost. Doesn’t get much better than that!
I find it weird that council has decided summer students hired by the city should live in the city, but yet the mayor and other major players are not required to live in the city.
I think that’s something that they are hoping to be a fuzzy issue in the election hugger. Let’s look at non issues to distract from the real core ones. Just watch the Seaway News in action and you’ll see Mayor Kilger’s game plan.
And now they want to see if they can give prefernce to potential employees that live in the city. I guess it’s a case of “do as I say, not as I do.” I say clean up your own house before you start telling others what to do.
Hugger it is known as a dictatorship: “do as I do or do as I say but don’t do as I do” and with the clique in Cornwall with Bare Ass you can’t get any worse than that. The clique is who is behind Bare Ass who runs things like a “don” and he speaks like one as well.